use strict; my $ip = '10.146.163.43'; my $logfile = "logfile.log"; my $log; open(LOG,"<",$logfile) || die "Unable to open file '$logfile': $!\n"; { local $/; $log = ; # slurping file into $log } close(LOG); $log =~ m/(.*?$ip.*?\/request>)/is; print "Log for IP address $ip:\n\n$1\n";